Pain in the rain; fun in the sun

This past weekend we traveled to Victoria so I could run in the Royal Victoria Half Marathon. Rocco and Steve came along as my support crew (they were probably just along for the food and the good times, really), and we saw some good friends who live in Victoria while we were there. The weekend was pretty great, and most of the time the sun shone and the air was beautifully crisp. MOST of the time.

The morning of the race was rainy, rainy, rainy. I decided at the last minute to ditch my running jacket with the guys and that was probably a good decision. The race went well enough although I got a crazy stitch in my side and walked for a while. Of course, that means I was walking just where Rocco and Steve had camped out to cheer me on. People around me in the race laughed as I cursed my luck and loudly exclaimed, "christ, now I have to run!" [Note to self: remember to use your inside voice!] Unfortunately, the pictures of me hamming it up for the cameras didn't really turn out. This is the best we got on Rocco's camera and if you look carefully or follow the giant red arrow, you'll see a tiny corner of my shoulder and my blue tank top:

I've blown it up a bit for you. The other thing visible in this image is the weird finger of the runner ahead of me. I know running can do strange and terrible things to bodies, but I've never heard of wonky runner's finger!


I am happy with my time. This year I've been running slower than last year, the effect of winter pounds that refuse to come off, I suspect. I knew my time would be longer than last year but happily it turned out to be a difference of only 3 minutes. The major difference between last year's race and this year's is my recovery time. I guess training does pay off because last year I could barely walk for the next few days but this year a quick soak in the hotel hot tub seemed to cure most of the race-induced pain. I'm even thinking about going for a run tomorrow to stretch out a bit. That was inconceivable last year!

Overall, a great weekend was had by all. Going to Victoria for Thanksgiving long weekend is becoming a tradition. Already there are promises by people like Dora and Marko Polo to run the 8km race next year, and the Duchess will make a repeat performance in the half with me. Anyone else interested? I promise you a good time and a technical t-shirt!